The Freshman Experience
How three Carthage students have made the most of J-Term
Hannah Olken, '11, has taken two trips to Israel with the Carthage College Classics and Religion departments.
The summer after Hannah Olken's freshman year at Carthage, she traveled to Omrit, an excavation site in northern Israel, where she spent five weeks unearthing a 2,000-year-old Roman temple with fellow classmates and her professor.
During January of her sophomore year, Hannah spent three weeks in Nicaragua on the island of Ometepe, treating men, women and children at a medical clinic.
Now a junior, Hannah's already returned to Omrit to work as a student leader during the 2009 summer excavation season.
"Coming in as a freshman, I would not have thought I would be going on trips," Hannah says. She didn't know much about J-Term when she was considering colleges. Now that she's at Carthage, she wants other freshmen to know what a fabulous opportunity J-Term can be.
"You're out of your shell and out of your bubble of comfort," she says. But you're living, and you're learning, and you're leading. "You grow as a person."
For Hannah, an athletics training major, that's exactly how she's supposed to spend her four years at Carthage. "You get so many different experiences that teach you more than you think."
Erin Zimmerman, '11, far left, stands with classmates while on a J-Term trip to Nicaragua.
Not every student taking advantage of J-Term is traveling around the world. Many Carthage freshmen stay close to campus their freshman year, taking an on-campus course in their major or another subject that interests them.
Carthage junior Erin Zimmerman, double-majoring in chemistry and theater, spent her first J-Term at Carthage rehearsing and performing in "The Serpent," an experimental play.
"It was very different, something I've never done before," she said. "We were the props and the furniture and the actors. I died five times during that play! It was so much fun and such a good experience for my freshman year. I kept thinking, 'This is my first play in college, and this is what I'm doing!'"
Erin spent her sophomore year J-Term in Nicaragua.
"The trips that are offered are once-in-a-lifetime things," she says. "Do it now, when you can. It's cheaper to go with school, and they plan everything for you. It's a great way to get to know a ton of different people on campus who aren't in the same age group. J-Term is awesome, and even if you do stay on campus, there are so many fun things to do."
Carthage junior Tyler Jump also spent his first J-Term on campus. He took a class on Russian Cinema that was taught by his Western Heritage professor. "It was a really fun class. I took it because my Heritage professor was teaching it and I liked him as a professor a lot."
His sophomore year, he traveled to Arizona to study biodiversity and digital photography. "I don't necessarily have the money to study abroad for a full semester, as much as I'd like to," Tyler said. "J-Term is a way to travel, get credit and experience something that you can't do otherwise." (See a slideshow of photographs from the Arizona J-Term trip.)
Students only need to take two J-Term courses, but many students participate every year. That's Tyler's plan. "It's part of my tuition," he said. "I'm already paying for the class, and I think it's a good way to take some interesting courses that are an important part of a liberal arts education. Russian Cinema isn't something I would have ever thought I would take!"
"I don't necessarily have the money to study abroad for a full semester, as much as I'd like to. J-Term is a way to travel, get credit and experience something that you can't do otherwise."
— Tyler Jump, '11
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